Method for measuring the rigidity and fatigue of structures



April 23, 1935; P. M. LE R'OLLAND' 1,993,727

METHOD FOR MEASURING THE RIGIDITY AND, FATIGUE OF STRUCTURES Filed Dec. 28, 19:;

Patented Apr. 23, 1935 I 1 METHOD Fox meesmmernnnmn iri AND FATIGUE or STRU 3r.

Paul Marcel Le Rolland, Nantes, France Application DecemberZS, 1931, ser 1N0, 583,4;5, In BelgiumDecember 31, 1930 4 Claims. (01. 73-51) The. present-invention relates tomethods; for reference to the accompanying drawing; in measuring the rigidity or the fatigue of. any whichz; U struc r uch as a p l eam, idge aer plan Fig. 1 illustrates, inpartial sectioruonepqssible. or;the -likecomp osed either of one single element embodiment of the invention, utilizing gravity :5 or, of a number ofelements riveted, bolted, welded pendulums; w I

or otherwise joined together. V V Fig. 2 represents a secgud methodand appara Up tome-present time, the only methods for tus utilizing. the pendulum principle; measuring the rigidity of structures consisted Fig. 3 is a section showing a pair of elastic either (-1-) in applying formulaeestablishing relapendulums applied to a beam for measuring the tions between deformation and elastic stresses rigidity or-thefatigue of the, latter, the 11;; or exterior forces, or (2) the soecalled, photo being supported; attwo fixede-pQints; elasticmethod, in which, a comparison is made Fig; 4, shows another method of; exploring; between a test element whose interior stresses beam-Iutilizing;aydiffe ient form-of;e1asticpendu; may beobserved or measured and the; structure lum than that shownin Fig. 3;

1a, to be; tested. The; first of these methods, yields Fig. 5 represents diagrammatically a pair of 1;

practical results only in the case where the strucgravity pendulums applied to a frame for measurr fl ngt d o eneou b 'be m inathezr sid y. on fat ue thereof; and nt rely. in pplicable where co po t it erv H e-6: ows a "12. .11? qrsionspemlulums ogeneousstructures areto be studied because of utilizedformeasuring therigidity of astructlliie 2;) a. number of non-detemiinable iactors introsubjected toitorsional stresses. 7 1 duced thereby. Th o q-b e h is. b- The se er pr nciple upon whi the -nv nti n viou'sly,,a more elegant one, since it permitsdiis based;isthe; follow ing z when oneoftwopendu; rec't "observation. However, in actual 7 practice, lums or,,vibratable systems attached; to; a rigid iti swerydifiicult to subject the testelementto structure is set in vibration or oscillation, the

exactly thesame stresjses as the, structure being second system automatically begins to vibrate or studied unless the test element be incorporated. oscillate by resonance. The characteristics of in the structure itself, in which, latter case, there movement of the second system; can. be, easily is danger of, seriously diminishing the strength observed: and analyzed; orf-even; recorded. Oseil; 1 l te A third hod been rQn d atin or vi ra in ys ms. n; unsetarred r ctly determ ni he-rigidity 0f t lfit l fes determined state. of movement, exert fierces qt 9, and consists in subjecting thestructure under test reaction and inertia on their supports which may teen exterior'force of known, value, (Static), the constitute stresses applied to, a st uctin'e under deflectiono'f thestru'cture under test being used test, said stresses; beingproducecl without, out; asameasure of its rigidity. While thismethod side intervention andinglependentlyof the sys;

may be applied to certainv poles, bridges and the tems themselves. efiect of the. stresses just 15; like. situated so that. a stress, may be exerted referred to is to producedisplacementsw ich are thereonby bearing a ain t s me x r r g nt a-fu c n l -the igidi roiithe tr c i wilde whichfijs relatively. rigidly fixed, the deflections test. It, is the small displacements cf; the test are relatively small andthe 'structure to betested structure fc11owingthe variable states; qi mpve;

4c, is generally of such size or form or is so posiment of-theoscillating or, vibratingsyste pswhich 9. Signed that IlO such suitable external point can conditions the. traggfgp f. energy; firpmbe round. r t r Y I one system to-the ther. Inapplxing oscillatins Q 9? obJectsof Present i e io or vibrating systemstoa test structure, a. study 1 Fw a m t f an of is..ma-de,"*so to speak of the. interior 'ofthe I ei -e an m of the disadvantages of the structurein questionvery much-as in the photo- 4251 fiE fEQ tZif fifE methodn'l' hich elastic method. rile characteristics or move:

a pair. of sillating r vibrating systems such merit m d n i i herth asfgravity or elastic pendulums (flexion, or tormetmd .ovf' QF L Qn qr at u fi sign), diapasons, or similar vibrating bodies posit h f i h firmness- 9 e-H doma ns: adjacent to a. planeinwhich a, stress fe fii i to b fi i q; 'Ihe nc g e -et os iscbeingjappliedare used'for exploring the rigidity y-he e u w 2 1 9? nz tmqfi or the fatigue of the structure under test. Where the a u s ub det8 l Qd 3$;

I Still iurther objects will appear in the course desired time intervals during the use ofthe. com- Q'f. the detailed description now to be! given with pleted structure, the test; structures beingit er Us permanently attached to, or detachable from the structure under test.

Referring to Fig. 1 of the drawing there is shown a vertical test structure A in the nature of a metallic pole rigidly fixed in the earth or in any suitable base. In proceeding to a test, a cross piece I) is fixed. rigidly at the summit a. of pole A and two pendular masses and c of identical mass are suspended therefrom. Pendulum which may be designated a motorpendulum, when set in motion will automatically cause pendulum c hereinafter to be designated the receiving pendulum, to oscillate by resonance. If the oscillations of the receiving pendulum be studied, it will be found thattheir amplitude gradually increases, passesthrough a maximum, and then gradually diminished toward zero. The

total time of oscillation t, that is to say, the in-' terval which separates two identical states in-the movement of the receiving pendulum (for example, two stoppages of the system) may be easily measured. IfK be used to designate the rigidity of the vertical pole under flexion, i. e., the ratio of the stress to the corresponding deflexion at a predetermined point, its value may be calculated by the following formula wherein M represents the mass of the receiving pendulum, T the time or period of one oscillation and t the time during which oscillation occurs. The value of K is that given by'the formula is small with relation to unity. It is not diflicult, however, to determine the relation K=f (L'M. T), this relation being different in each particular case while remaining, generally, simple.

Instead of proceeding by calculation, recourse may be had, evidently, to the method of comparison'when the latter is practically possible.

The example illustrated in Fig. 2 differs from the one shownin Fig. 1 only in that the receiving pendulum c is mounted on the post at a point other than a. The pendular masses may either be equal or different. The same principle is involved and the manner of calculating evident.

If it be desired tomeasure the rigidity of a beam, some such procedure as that shown in Fig. 3 may be made use of. As will appear from the drawing, a support d is rigidly fastened .to the middle of the beam and a pair of flexion pendulumse and e are suspended from a pair of lamellar springs f and F, the latter being rigidly attached .at one extremity to support (1. By setting either one of the pendular masses in vertical movement, the other will automatically oscillate'and its movement may be, studied and ap plied in the same manner as that of the receivin pendulum represented in Fig. 1.

The test assembly shown in Fig. 4 differs from that shown in Fig. 3 only in thatpendu-larmasses e and e are suspended from springs attached to the beam at points symmetrical to its center. In this case the pendular masses may be identical or different.

Fig. 5 shows the invention applied to a frame structure C. I-Iere gravity, fiexion or torsion pendulums may be attached to any pair of hori- Zontal elements of the frame or to anyone. If desired special traverses h andh may be rigidly mounted on the frame and test pendular masses 1' and i may be suspended therefrom.

If it be desired to study the rigidity of a structure submitted to torsional stresses, recourse may be had to the form of assembly illustrated in Fig. 6. Assuming the test structure to be in the form of a post or pole such as element D, a metallic wire 7' and torsion pendulum k serving as a motor is suspended therefrom. A rigid frame m is attached to test piece D and a receiving torsion pendulum k is suspended therefrom by means of a wire 5 When torsional stresses are exerted transversely on element D by submitting motor-pendulum k to a twist, re ceiving pendulum 10 will respond and the' rigidity of structure D may be calculated as in the preceding cases. The" invention presents the following advantages:

A. No exterior point of application is necessary for applying stresses to the test structure, since the stresses are all interior;

B. Automatic amplification is obtained, the small deformations of the test structure being communicated to the oscillating or vibrating testing elements which themselves produce th stresses;

0. The rigidity measurements are obtained under the effect of stresses applied alternately in opposite directions, 1. e., under conditions very close to those under which the structureoperates.

The invention is not to be taken as limited to any of the particular structures of assemblies shown in any particular figure. Thus; the test method represented in Figs. 3 and 4 may be applied to structures of the type shown in Figs. 5 and 6 or conversely.

What I claim is:

1. The method of inspecting the state of a structure which comprises, connecting to said structure two 'oscillatable. elements adapted to move freely with'simple harmonic motion, starting one of these elements into oscillation, whereby the second element acquires a sympathetic oscillation and both elements are caused to oscillate with periodically varying respective amplitudes, and measuring the period of the varia-' tion from minimum to .maximum amplitude of the sympathetic element as an indexof the'charj acteristics of the structure. v H p 2. The method of inspecting the state of a; structure, which comprises, connecting to said structure two oscillatable elements adapted to move freely with simple harmonic motion, start: ing one of these elements into oscillation, whereby the second element acquires a sympathetic oscillation and both of these elements are caused to oscillate with periodically varying respective amplitudes, and measuring the number of oscil-j lations of one of these elements that take place during one period of the variation from minimum to maximum amplitude of the sympathetic element as an index of the characteristics of the structure.

3. The, method of inspectingv the state of a structure which comprises connecting to "said structure two pendulums adapted to oscillate freely, starting one of these pendulums into oscillation, whereby the second element acquires a sympathetic oscillation and both pendulums are caused to oscillate with periodically varying respective amplitudes, and measuring the time period of the variation from minimum to maximum amplitude of the sympathetic element as an index of the characteristics of the structure.

4. The method of inspecting the state of a structure which comprises connecting to said structure two pendulums adapted to oscillate PAUL MARCEL LE ROLL-AND. 

